One fifth of all care managers in the UK are unaware of the requirements to vet staff introduced by the Government’s new vetting and barring legislation.

In a survey by specialist care insurer Ecclesiastical, 20% of care managers questioned said they did not know about the requirements. This percentage rose to 25% in children’s homes and 25% in domiciliary care.

The survey also found that almost one third of care managers (31%) believed the vetting and barring legislation would make care homes more willing to employ job candidates who had already been through the checking process. In homes providing personal care, this figure rose to 57%.

Care managers are also not fully convinced that vetting and barring will have the impact the Government is seeking. Asked if they felt the introduction of the vetting and barring legislation would improve protection for vulnerable groups, one third (34%) said it would not, compared with 41% who said it would. Management in nursing homes were the least convinced by the changes with 48% saying it would not improve the situation.

Regulation is also an issue for care managers the Ecclesiastical survey found. Asked about the appropriateness of the degree of regulation applied to their business, one third (33%) said that regulation was excessive, while 57% felt the regulation was correct.

The Vetting and Barring Scheme was introduced by the Government in October 2009. Developed as a response to the Soham murders, the scheme applies to anyone working with children or vulnerable adults and requires them to have a criminal record check. Current estimates suggest that 11 million people will need to be checked by 2015.

Ecclesiastical Insurance managing director Steve Wood said: “We wanted to see how care managers are dealing with the new vetting and barring rules because failure to implement them correctly could lead to litigation and significant costs for care establishments.

“While awareness of the requirements is high, particularly among managers of children’s homes and domiciliary care providers, there is still a significant group of managers who’ve yet to get to grips with the implications of the scheme for their organisations.”